Reader Question # 1: Move to the UK first, or find a job first?

So I work a regular 9-5 corporate job here in Toronto but anxious to travel and enjoy life. So I have been thinking about taking my skill and going abroad. I know you’ve been doing that and so I was wondering if you first decided to move and then find a job… or find a job and then move?

Do you have any suggestions or tips you could give to someone in my situation?

– Wanting to Travel

Dear WTT,

The first time I moved abroad (Martinique), I already had a job lined up and I must say, it is significantly less stressful. If it’s your first time moving abroad, then it eases a lot of nerves to have a job waiting for you. In many cases, that’s easier said than done.

When I was moving to London, I decided to move first and find a job when I arrived. There were a few things working in my favour:

I wasn’t particularly picky about the job I got. If I didn’t find something in my field, then I would have been happy working at a gym or a bar, or as a classroom assistant – at least for the first little while.

My partner is a Londoner. He had a lot of contacts and I was able to network with people who had jobs.

I was able to stay with his family. I paid for my expenses, but I didn’t have to face the racket that is the London housing market with all of my savings on the first go. It gave me time to find my feet and I didn’t have start applying for jobs at Costa Coffee immediately.

On the other hand, I was at a disadvantage because though I’ve had a couple dozen jobs, they had never been long-term full-time positions in my field. Basically, I didn’t have a dedicated field of work – I had spent two years teaching English in the Caribbean! This didn’t give me very much leverage in the job hunt, and I was lucky to have not started with a low paid/no paid internship, which is an epidemic in London. For someone who has been working for years, I’m sure you will have more people after you!

These days, it’s not easy to find a company that will sponsor you to come to the UK unless you have very special skills or you are in a very senior role. First, in order to recruit from overseas, the employer has to show that they cannot fill the role with someone who is settled in the UK or the EU, so finding a job before arriving in the country can be difficult.

If you’re dead set on having a job in advance, then there are a couple options. Check whether your company has an international office, then you may be able to ask for an internal transfer overseas. If not, you can look to move to another company with offices in Canada and abroad, work there for a bit and find out what it would take for them to relocate you.

If you have a good amount of savings and are feeling adventurous, moving to the UK without a job isn’t the craziest thing in the world. Most jobs are found via recruitment agencies, so your first port of call would be looking up agencies that recruit in your line of work.

Some of the ones I used were:

Neil’s Recruitment Agency
Major Players
Digital Gurus

For temporary work:

Office Angels
Secs in the City

Websites (for job listings):

Reed
Monster.co.uk

Let them know you’re making a move to the country with a Tier 5 visa – they won’t accept your CV if you don’t have the right to work here – and see what the response is like. Get them on the phone and ask them to give you feedback on your CV as well. If it’s positive and you’re sure you want to move, apply for the visa. Start sending out your CV about two weeks before your arrival and speak to recruiters on the phone and get them setting up interviews.

The key to working with recruiters is to get them to work for you. They get a commission if you get a job, so it’s in their interest to help you. If you have actual career experience, you will have a lot more clout than someone like me and could be very quickly head hunted, depending on your field.

Another tip – especially for new graduates – is to look for recruitment fairs to attend. Employers will often set up interviews on the spot if they like the look of you. I also went to two conferences in my field, which allowed me to network and find companies that were hiring.

I hope that helps!

My office now!Bangers and Beer Fridays

If you have any questions that you think a lot of people could benefit from getting an answer from, just send it over and I’ll publish it here on the blog!

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thank you so much for this! i’m moving to london in november and the thought of moving sans job is a bit nerve-wracking. i never even thought about recruiters or any sort of agency so this puts be at ease quite a bit.

question time!

how long did it take before you found yourself a job in your field? did you work any odd jobs and how easy/hard were those to come by?

It took me 6 weeks. From my experience, that’s really quickly for a person with little experience, but my field (digital marketing) isn’t that difficult to get into at entry-level. I didn’t work any odd jobs, except when I worked as a wristband person at the Vans Warped Tour. That job came through a friend of Tom’s. As far as how easy they are to come by…I don’t know – it depends who you know and how much experience you have in what kind of odd jobs you’re looking for.

Thanks! It’s enormously comforting to read this even as someone who should have a teaching job lined up for when I arrive mid-August. If that happened to fall through or I find it really is as much a horror story as some people say education there is, well, it’s good to have fall back options.

What is the digital marketing you got into? I think you’ve mentioned SEO but I’m still a bit confused as to what that entails as job anyway. What other digital marketing areas are there? (If you know). Or areas, aside from freelancing, that a writer with nothing major published but the unofficial stuff of a new blog and local newspaper entries, could do? What sort of jobs were being offered at the recruitment fairs you attended?

I always leave your posts feeling comforted and ready to take on the world. 🙂 Thanks again!

Hi Alyssa! I actually did start the process to be a classroom assistant, but I changed my mind at the last minute – I didn’t want to do it (so maybe I was picky after all!) because it seemed low paid for what it was.

Officially, I work in SEO. A quick Google or checking out the MOZ blog will sort you out. In reality, I write articles for our clients as well as develop partnerships with blogs on our clients’ behalf. At my company, we have PPC (Pay Per Click – if you’ve ever wondered why, when you visit a website and then go to another one, you see more ads for the website, that PPC and is called retargeting. Getting you back to the site for a sale), biddable media (similar deal – bidding for Google ad space, we pay every time someone clicks on it), SEO, social media management and monitoring, and client services. There is also content marketing and strategy, user experience, developing, and so on. Digital marketing is sort of a catch all term for any kind of advertising or marketing that happens on the web.

I applied and got an interview for a job with a company called Sticky Content. They accept people on an internship (I think it’s 6 weeks or 3 months, I don’t remember). Basically, they are web copywriters – they write websites or articles for different companies. I met them at a graduate recruitment fair. I didn’t go to the interview because I got the job at Tug.

Jobs at recruitment fairs vary. A lot of the time, they have very specific purposes, so you can go to fairs for marketing jobs, engineering jobs, etc.

These are great tips! When I moved to London, I went without a job, but with a Tier 1 (now unavailable) visa and full time work experience from my chosen field, so I found it super easy to find work – in fact I got 5 offers in the first 3 weeks I was job hunting. Sadly, though, this was pre-recession, and there were a few mitigating factors in my favour – I was post-grad qualified, with almost 5 years full time work experience and I had the right work visa. If you are looking to move to London as a working professional, chances are high you’ll be able to land a good job if you have work experience and the right visa. If however you are looking to work casually or part time and travel for a few years, it will be difficult to find a job as the competition for these sorts of roles are pretty high! Unfortunately these are also the types of jobs where it’s impossible to apply for before you move over – so I say take the plunge and go, then look for work. Just make sure you have the right to work before you go! This may help: http://takingtotheopenroad.com/moving-to-the-uk-visa/

My situation is a bit complicated. I’m currently doing my master degree at a British university (I also graduated from UofT, by the way), but I chose the campus in Brussels, instead of mainland UK. Brussels is a good place to study international affairs, but there’s no way for me to stay there after graduation. I couldn’t even get paid for my internship because I’m not the EU-citizen. I thought the youth mobility scheme might be a good chance for me to gain 2 years work experience abroad, though I’m happy enough to be back to Canada right after graduation.

I will finish all my classes this December, and I just need to hand in my dissertation by the end of March next year. Should I start to look for job around mid-September? Do you find it difficult to get reply from employers when they notice you are not living in UK at the moment? Are most job opportunities happened to be in London? I don’t mind moving into any city as long as I can support myself financially.

Please don’t feel pressure to reply me, and thank you so much for posting these great blogs!

If you’re looking for graduate schemes, they usually start opening 6 months or so before you actually start, so why not research companies you would like to work for and see when they open? If you’re just looking for any job, I would suggest waiting until you’re in the process of getting your visa.

I was able to get 2 interviews for jobs in London, and they wanted to interview me immediately and I told them I was still abroad. One gave me a Skype interview and the other I happened to be on holiday in London when they got back to me, so I was able to do it.

I made it clear in my CV that I would be moving to the UK and I would have a Tier 5 visa (so they wouldn’t need to sponsor me). They’re usually more worried that you won’t be there by the start date.

Most jobs are in London, but really it depends what industry you’re looking for a job in. Finance and business is definitely London, shipping you can go to Scotland, digital and tech is London or Brighton, research will be in any university town, or for media you’d be okay in Manchester…

This has been super helpful, sometimes I think I might be crazy to move without a job.
I visited this summer and got a bit spooked.
I knew London was expensive but gosh, the exchange rate is brutal.
But I love the city and I can’t wait to make the move. It won’t be my first time living abroad, but it will be my first time living abroad without a job and a place to stay!

Like you I am a Canadian but I have dual citizenship so no visa requirements. You mentioned you made your visa situation clear on your CV, and I was wondering how that went and where exactly you included it? I’ve been toying around with my CV and I can’t decide whether to throw it up top, or as a footnote, etc.

Also I’m assuming they don’t know much about Canadian schools over there? Other than maybe McGill or UofT 😉

Ha! It’s not that crazy, it’s actually very character building. Nothing teaches you to be motivated and self-sufficient like facing homelessness in a foreign country.

Anyways, you don’t need to mention it and you probably shouldn’t. I only did that because I was applying from a foreign country. I never put it on my CV either, only in cover letters if it was mentioned as a requirement. Just put a UK address on your CV and leave it at that. Some places will just ignore your application in favour of people who are already in the UK.

As far as schools, not really… I mean there are a lot of Canadians who own businesses but your degree and where you studied isn’t really a big deal here. They want to know that you went to an accredited postsecondary institution and that you did well but beyond that, it doesn’t matter. I don’t think going to a school people haven’t heard of will influence a job application especially if you’re not at graduate level.

I am finding all of this information really helpful but do have a couple of questions.

1. I am a bit confused reading through how to get the Tier 5 Visa. I am looking to move the the UK around August 24th but it doesn’t let me select that date when I try to begin the application. Does this mean that you cannot start the process until 6 months before the date you want to leave (and can that date be an estimate)? OR are you actually saying in your FAQ that I cannot apply until 3 months before I intend to leave?

2. Do you have any information on finding a job in Newcastle (i.e. good recruitment agencies, etc)? I will likely be moving to Newcastle rather than London and am having trouble finding information. I work in Communications and PR.

If you have or will have a visa, it shouldn’t be a problem depending on when the start date is. You really shouldn’t start looking until about 2 weeks before you arrive, unless the company is looking for graduates to start in September, for example.

Oops, I didn’t see this one first! Yes, you’ll have trouble if you won’t be on a YMS visa. Finding a company to sponsor you is incredibly difficult unless you have very special experience. They might help, but you’ll have to look for companies that are recruiting abroad. Just so you know, going to the UK to job search is not allowed on a tourist visa. It’s been done but be very careful about it!

your website is really informative and I think I’ve read each page at least twice – very useful stuff 😀
I have just one question with regards to both the visa application process and having a job lined up.
My company wants to send me to their London branch and I’m going to apply for the YMS visa as they do not want to sponsor me with the tier 2 visa. Should I include my UK work contract as well in the application for the YMS visa? I will take any suggestions, I understand that you are not responsible if any issues arise at the visa application centre 🙂

Very helpful Alyssa. My fiance and son are UK citizens but I am not. We want to migrate to the UK from the Caribbean but he needs to go ahead and settle first as we do not currently have any money saved to meet the financial requirements for my visa. I told him that he should apply for jobs before he gets there to give him a leg up but we learnt on another blog that you need a permanent address and UK bank account to get a job. I still he should try to see if he can get any interviews before he leaves. What do you think?

Yes, you need those things for a job, but it doesn’t stop you from applying. It depends on the type of work he’s looking for, some industries are faster at hiring than others but having interviews lined up doesn’t hurt. Best of luck!

Hi Alyssa
First of all, thank you for your information, it is really helpful.
I am Spanish and working here has become a bit of a challenge. Despite the economy is starting to take off slowly, it isn’t enough to reduce the unemployment (over 25%). So I’d be willing to move to London or anywhere in search of a better future. I have to say that England would be the most suitable place with me because, even though I am not a perfect english speaker, with my command of the language I can get by perfectly.
My question for you is: nowdays, how do you see the working perspectives there in London? Are the working market and the unemployment figures improving compared with the last few years or is it getting more difficcult to find a job (even an odd job) there?
Tank you for your pacience and dedication, you are helping us a lot. Regards.

It depends on the kind of work you’re looking for and your previous experience. Most of my friends with work experience have managed to find good jobs within a couple months, I don’t see why that wouldn’t be typical. Best of luck!

Hello, Alyssa. I’m Luís, I’m an 18 year-old student from Portugal, who resides in Lisbon.
My situation is a bit complicated, because I don’t have a lot of studies, in fact, the only hope for me to finish my studies (here the last and fundamental year of Secondary School is the 12th Grade, or ”12º ano”) is to attend classes at night for a year or so. I was never the most clever of students, but I managed, my problem was that I struggled with bullying and that didn’t incentivate me to make an effort. I guess that makes me a failure when compared to others, because I kind of gave up.
Today, I can’t find anything here, I send CV’s on a daily-basis (I even tried to send my CV to a company responsible for cleaning the streets, with no success.) Yes, I wouldn’t mind picking up the trash! The problem is I’m not given any opportunity, and it’s getting more and more difficult to make ends meet, since only my mother works and I have a 2 year old sister.
That’s why I considered the possibility of moving to England, in hope of finding a job, any job whatsoever, no preference at all, but that would leave me in a vulnerable position since I don’t have studies, nor work experience in any field. To make things worse, I’d have to do everything alone, because I don’t have family nor friends living there.
Feeling kind of desperate here because I don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone expects me to help and I can’t help anyone, not even myself. The only thing I got that could give me some ‘advantage’ is the fact that I am fluent in 3 languages (english, portuguese and spanish) but I doubt that would help me a lot. I’m so hard-working, so strenuous and committed, but at the same time so undervalued. What should a person in my situation do?

I’m really sorry hear to about your difficulty with bullying, I know how hard it can be to focus on learning when you don’t feel comfortable or safe. It’s very impressive to see you trying to help your family when you’re still a kid yourself. I’ll be honest and say that until you finish your studies, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a business that will take you seriously in the UK or elsewhere. I think that your language fluency is an advantage — have you thought about language tutoring or proofreading jobs? It’s a good way to get some work experience and start proving that you are a commercially-minded and motivated young man. This will give you job experience and the confidence of running your own business.

There are a lot of resources online to give you an idea of how to get started with that. Until then, I suggest speaking to your teachers and school administrators about the bullying and to see what they would recommend in your situation. Maybe one of them will have an idea of where you can get started on some work experience.

Hello Alyssa
Thanks for sharing information! My situation may be a bit different so hopefully you can help. I will be visiting London in November to be with my boyfriend. I was reading you can visit on your passport up to 6 months so I was going to do that but I think more than likely I will be staying in London and starting a new life there with this man. So should I apply for visas and work permits prior to my trip or just handle all of that while there?

Hi Tanisha – that sounds lovely! You cannot go to the UK with the intention of looking for work, they will not allow you in to the country. For the Tier 5 YMS visa, you cannot apply from within the UK and you’ll be hard pressed to find a sponsor for a Tier 2 unless your job is on the job shortage list. Hope that helps!

Great blog! Thanks for all the information it really helps. My boyfriend has been offered a Post-doctoral position at Oxford University starting October 1st of this year, and I would like to go with him (We are both Canadian). I have a masters of science degree and have been working for a couple of years as a research manager in a health care field in Toronto. I am really considering the Tier 5 visa, and will probably apply for it in August and begin my job hunt in September. I have 2 questions however:

1.) Does the UK recognize common-law relationships (we have been living together for about 2 years now)? The problem is that my boyfriends contract is for 2 and a half years and the Tier 5 is only for 2. If there was some sort of common law visa I could get while he is there would that make things easier?
2.) We are still confused on whether we want to live in London and my boyfriend to commute or live in Oxford. Because of this we do not want to find a place until arriving to the UK – to see if we can handle the commute. This means we will not have a UK address before leaving Canada. Will this make it difficult for me to apply for jobs before leaving the country?

1) Beyond my area of expertise, but I suspect that yes you can but it is hella more expensive and requires him to be making a certain amount of money and it takes around 6 months or something.

2) Just apply within a week or two of you leaving, there’s not much point of you doing it sooner. Put the address of where you might be living, it’s not that important on a CV. What you really need is a phone number and they’ll see you’re not UK based if you don’t have a local one.

Hi Alyssa! I find your blog very very helpful!
My friend and I are moving to London next year after we both have obtained our degree in English. We are hoping to find a job that is related to our studies. I also study the combined degree programme business law and languages. I was thinking about looking for a job in the field of hospitality( I also speak 5 languages)or marketing (maybe in a publishing company). I was wondering how hard it will be to find a job, considering that we do not have any job experience in the field that we want to work in and the fact that we just have graduated. In any case, we would also be willing to take on a job as waiters or anything else that helps us pay our rent for the first few months. We really hope to be able to settle down in London as we both are in love with the English speaking culture and London in general. 🙂

My answer to these questions kinds of questions is the same: how long is a piece of string? I can’t tell you how hard it will be to find a job – a lot of job hunting has to do with luck. As I’ve recommended in other posts – sign up with recruiters and get information from them. They have a better beat on the job market than I do. From my experience, work experience is much more highly valued than a degree in a particular field (unless it’s a professional or practical job like engineering). If you want a job in publishing or hospitality, you need tenacity and a good story as to why people should take a chance on hiring you over someone who has shown that they’re dedicated to a particular line of work. Best of luck with your move!

I got my visa in June and I’m due to leave first week of September. I’m just wondering, should I mention that I have the youth mobility visa on my CV or cover letter? How did you go about doing this? Additionally, I’ve got an honours degree in Sociology from the University of Calgary, and some solid internship experience. I’m not sure which industry I want to get into. But have you found that people were less interested in you because of your Arts degree (you did get an Arts degree, correct?) and because you were foreign? I’m just a bit worried about this.
Thank you!!
Vanessa

I think I covered this elsewhere… Maybe it was in an email. I’m going to write a blog post about in that case. My answer is… it depends. Check out the British CV vs North American Resume post in the meantime.

I actually have a Bachelor of Science, but it doesn’t really make a difference I think. It’s hard for me to say… I found a job in 6 weeks as a content writer. In general, I think that people are more interested in your experience than your credentials or where you are from. Of course, some people will be less interested but if you meet the minimum requirements (i.e. education) and can show that you’ll be an asset to a company, what does it matter where you’re from?

Hi, Thank you a lot for your blog it is very helpful. My boyfriend and I have just bought a one way ticket for London for September and it is very reassuring to see that other people are doing the same thing !

We both have some money aside and I will be working a few months from home for my mother before looking for another job there, reading your experience conforted me in the idea that what we are doing is not that crazy 🙂

I feel it’s very hard to find a job in London (or elsewhere) if you live abroad (even if it’s france) because both my boyfriend and I live in the countryside and it is very difficult to go to London for an interview. I had some calls from recruitment agencies so I know my resume is a little bit interesting 😀 but they never called me back when I was saying ” Err I think I will come to London in September”, it must have seemed too complicated for them…

Yes, unless you’re willing to travel for interviews recruiters won’t be very keen. They’re mostly just trying to make money so any complications will turn them off. Wait until a week or two before you arrive in London, or apply directly to companies if you want to start now. They’re usually much more accommodating.

I think you site has a full of thoughtful information and easy to understand. I’m a US citizen with an 8+ years of experience in Information Technology and Bachelor in Computer Science. Hunting a job in London and overall UK has not been an issue, but more so When the question arise ‘What’s your work authorization in UK’ that’s when the recruiter gets put off. I tried applying directly with companies such as IBM, Oracle and Thompson Reuters at no avail. I’m not going to be eligible for Tier 5 visa as I’m older than 31 yrs and Tier 2 visa has become -in my opinion- difficult as there are no companies willing to sponsor me at the moment.

Hey alyssa. I’m Indonesian and am wondering what is the best way to get a job there.
I want to move there first but I can’t really move there without a visa. I just visited my boyfriend in Scotland and got a 6 months visa and can re-enter the UK if I see fit. But if I wonder if it would be possible to get a job during that time that I’m going to risk because I would be on a holiday visa and I wouldn’t be allowed to work there.
Any advice for my situation to find work? I only have close to 1 year experience, entry level at a bank in Indonesia. I only found some Indonesian interpreters work, but those are only freelance jobs and they wont help with the visa.
If you can hook me up with anyone you might know who has a job vacancy and is willing to sponsor me, that’d be great.
Thanks so much for the advice!

I was wondering — is it illegal for me to apply for jobs in the UK from Canada (i.e. online) if I don’t have my Tier 5 yet? I was hoping to have a job before flying over to save time searching (and time on my visa) once I get there.

Hey Alyssa!
It’s great to find a blog that’s up-to-date with pertinent information. Keep it up! My question (apologies if you’ve already answered it. I scoured the blog and couldn’t seem to find it) is, is there a limit on the length of time you’re allowed to work at any one employer within the validity duration of two years? Thanks!

Hi Alyssa,
Thank you for posting this information. It is the most helpful that I have come across so far. I have a British passport and I’m planning on moving to the UK in the next few months from Australia. I am a “mature age traveller” at 42. Not sure about living in London as it is so expensive. Are there any other areas or counties that you would recommend? Happy for your opinion.
Thank you,
Steph. Sydney, Aust.

Hey Steph! I’ve only lived in London… but I suppose it depends what kind of lifestyle and work you’re looking for. Bristol, Brighton, Leeds, Manchester — all second cities with their own social scenes and a good chance of finding work.

Hello Ms. Alyssa, i’m planning to work in london, and the first step that i’m doing now were i’m sending my job application online through reed.uk. do you think i’m doing the right step to fulfill my dream to work there or not. thank you

Hi, so my friend and I are looking to move to London after high school, we have been saving up money for a long time. So it’s probably obvious we have no degree or anything so we would be trying to get just about any job we can. So what would be the best kind of job for us to look for? Cause we have been looking at getting a visa but don’t know what to get that doesn’t require us to already have a job and a sponsor.

I’m a 40 year old female with no special skills or degree, I have 15 years experience in clerical and the retail field. I’ve been seriously thinking of moving to London for years now and I’ve even managed to save a decent amount of money, I also have a fairly new car that I can probably sell for a couple thousands. My questions is if it’s insane to try to make that move with no degree under my belt? I’ve looked into the school aspect of things and that too seems very expensive, but from my research seems the easiest way to make the move. What kind of visa would I need before hand? Should I wait it out and try to obtain and degree or trade school skills? I’ve very positive this is what I want, but I don’t want to jump the gun and go broke within the first few months hoping for a decent paying job that may not come.

Hello. I will be a newly graduate from high school in May of next year. My partner is a citizen in the UK (Northern Ireland) and I was wondering what type of visa I should get considering I’m planning to move there permanently, and eventually get a job and maybe entrol in a Technical School for a few courses in beauty. I will live with him so residence isn’t a issue and funds won’t be either. What visas can I choose from that will allow me to enter Ireland and live there without having a job right away?

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Who am I?

I’m Alyssa — Anthropologist and Freelance Writer based in London and Barcelona! I write about Travel and Social Justice. Staff writer for TravelMag.com. Words in MSN, Bustle, the Globe and Mail, Porthole Cruise Magazine, Matador Network, and more.